Antz (1998)
Directed by Eric Darnell
A neurotic worker ant in love with a rebellious princess rises to unlikely stardom when he switches places with a soldier. Signing up to march in a parade, he ends up under the command of a bloodthirsty general. But he's actually been enlisted to fight against a termite army.
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13 films that influenced Antz
What critics say influenced Antz
Allen's one-liners are smoothly folded into a clever adventure tale that also incorporates allusions to Fritz Lang's "Metropolis," various Biblical stories and the class-conscious "screwball comedies" of the 1930s.
On a larger scale, "Antz" features unprecedented crowd scenes and multi-dimensional "sets" (a majestic, organic "Metropolis" ant hill interior, an ant's-eye-view of a picnic) that also raise the bar on this emerging art form.
Something of a combination of "Metropolis" and "Logan's Run" with elements of the 1950's nuclear paranoia film, "Them!" thrown in, "Antz" is a visual delight with the potential to appeal to generations of moviegoers.
Woody Allen provides the voice of the formicary lead in Antz, the sophisticated, funny, and joyously subversive animated bug epic that, for all its snazzy computer animation, can claim the 1955 cartoon version of George Orwell's Animal Farm as a first cousin.
The state-of-the-art animation alone makes the movie worthwhile, but on top of the technical wizardry, "Antz," like "Toy Story," is ripe with dozens of hip references certain to zoom over the heads of anyone under the age of 10.
This is the project that was raced through production at computer graphics house Pacific Data Incorporated in order to beat A Bug's Life -- Disney and Pixar's follow-up to the immensely successful Toy Story -- to movie screens.
October 3, 1998 -- "Antz" is a very clever new computer-animated movie of the type pioneered by "Toy Story."
Round two is shaping up as a real contest; Antz is a very clever film that sets the bar high for A Bug's Life (which comes from the makers of Toy Story and therefore will be a force in its own right).
It's also an amazing feat of computer animation, so advanced and life-like it almost makes "Toy Story" look like it was made by a kid with a box of 64 Crayolas.
Before embarking on the 18-month filming process for "Antz," which follows "Toy Story" as the second all-computer-animated film in Hollywood history, they spent a full year researching and preparing the project.
This week, the answer is probably "Hannah and Her Sisters"; by the end of the month, it may well be "Antz," which, although it was not written or directed by the Woodman, is permeated through and through with his brand of neurotic humor.
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Danny Glover, also on hand to publicize the picture, waxed more philosophical than Aykroyd when asked why he agreed to a voice-only part in an insect-based movie - not an obvious choice for the star of the "Lethal Weapon" series and the dramatic "Beloved," a far more serious film coming later this month.
Even though that holds true for Allen, the obvious vocal work of Gene Hackman ("Unforgiven," "Absolute Power") and Sylvester Stallone ("Rocky," "Cliffhanger") is excellent (and who would have thought that of the latter after "Yo, Adrienne!").
In particular, the scenes involving a wrecking ball consisting entirely of thousands of ants, a fun dance number with a brief "Pulp Fiction" reference, and an amusement park-like "ride" where Z and Bala find themselves stuck on a human's tennis shoe (and are quickly lifted and lowered hundreds of "ant" feet in the air) are just a few of the moments that are extremely well-done and equally fun to watch.
The rest of the vocal performances are fine, although some are barely recognizable -- Jennifer Lopez ("Selena," "Out of Sight") as Z's coworker and Dan Aykroyd ("The Blues Brothers," "Ghostbusters") as a snobbish, but friendly wasp (or make that WASP) -- and Sharon Stone's ("Basic Instinct," "Casino") take on Princess Bala could have used a bit more conviction to make that character jump off the screen a bit more.
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It's Deconstructing Harry for the lunchbox set.
As the voice of Z, Allen ("Deconstructing Harry," "Manhattan") fills him with those well-known neurotic tendencies for which the actor is best known.
The rest of the vocal performances are fine, although some are barely recognizable -- Jennifer Lopez ("Selena," "Out of Sight") as Z's coworker and Dan Aykroyd ("The Blues Brothers," "Ghostbusters") as a snobbish, but friendly wasp (or make that WASP) -- and Sharon Stone's ("Basic Instinct," "Casino") take on Princess Bala could have used a bit more conviction to make that character jump off the screen a bit more.